Arthur Gooch (January 4, 1909 – June 19, 1936) was an American criminal, who is notable for being the only person executed under the

Federal Kidnapping Act Following the historic Lindbergh kidnapping (the abduction and murder of Charles Lindbergh's toddler son), the United States Congress passed a federal kidnapping statute—known as the Federal Kidnapping Act, (a)(1) (popularly known as the Lindb ...

who did not kill the victim(s). Gooch was the only person sentenced to death and executed by the

federal government of the United States The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...

for a kidnapping in which the victim(s) were not killed. Gooch and another man, Ambrose Nix, kidnapped police officers R.N. Baker and H.R. Marks in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

on November 26, 1934, and released them in

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

. Baker was badly injured after being shoved into a glass case, which then broke during the kidnapping. This made the crime a capital offense since the victims had not been released unharmed. Nix was shot and killed while resisting arrest on December 23, 1934. Although the

electric chair The electric chair is a specialized device used for capital punishment through electrocution. The condemned is strapped to a custom wooden chair and electrocuted via electrodes attached to the head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New Yo ...

was the only method of execution in

at this time, Gooch was executed by

hanging Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

. Like Gooch, another federal inmate James Alderman, executed in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

on August 17, 1929, was also hanged, despite the fact that Florida state law authorized electrocution as a sole method. The sentence was carried out by Oklahoma's state executioner,

Rich Owens Ritchie Darryl Owens (born May 22, 1972) is an American former professional football defensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for the Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks. He played colleg ...

. According to the witnesses Gooch's hanging was botched, Gooch reportedly struggling for 15 minutes before dying. Many blamed Owens for this failure, as this was the only hanging he ever performed and the first hanging in Oklahoma since 1911. His last words were reported to have been, "It's kind of funny—dying. I think I know what it will be like. I'll be standing there, and all of a sudden everything will be black, then there'll be a light again. There's got to be a light again—there's got to be." Gooch was 27 years old at time of his execution.

Notes and references

1909 births 1936 deaths 1930s kidnappings in the United States 20th-century executions of American people People executed by the United States federal government by hanging People executed under the Federal Kidnapping Act {{US-crime-bio-stub

See also

Notes and references